For the actress, see Jesse Douglas (actress). For the baseball player, see Jesse Douglas (baseball). Jesse Douglas (3 July 1897 – 7 September 1965) was an American mathematician and Fields Medalist known for his general solution to Plateau's problem. He was born to a Jewish family[1] in New York City, the son of Sarah (née Kommel) and Louis Douglas. He attended City College of New York as an undergraduate, graduating with honors in Mathematics in 1916.  He then moved to Columbia University as a graduate student, obtaining a PhD in mathematics in 1920.[2] Douglas was one of two winners of the first Fields Medals,[3] awarded in 1936. He was honored for solving, in 1930, the problem of Plateau, which asks whether a minimal surface exists for a given boundary. The problem, open since 1760 when Lagrange raised it, is part of the calculus of variations and is also known as the soap bubble problem. Douglas also made significant contributions to the inverse problem of the calculus of variations. The American Mathematical Society awarded him the Bôcher Memorial Prize in 1943. Douglas, Jesse (1931). "Solution of the problem of Plateau". Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 33 (1): 263–321. doi:10.2307/1989472. JSTOR 1989472. Douglas, Jesse (1939). "Green's function and the problem of Plateau". American Journal of Mathematics. 61 (3): 545–589. doi:10.2307/2371314. JSTOR 2371314. PMC 1077111. PMID 16588237. Douglas, Jesse (1939). "The most general form of the problem of Plateau". American Journal of Mathematics. 61 (3): 590–608. doi:10.2307/2371315. JSTOR 2371315. PMC 1077112. PMID 16588238. Douglas, Jesse (1939). "Solution of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 25 (12): 631–637. Bibcode:1939PNAS...25..631D. doi:10.1073/pnas.25.12.631. PMC 1077987. PMID 16588312. Douglas, Jesse (1940). "A new special form of the linear element of a surface". Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 48: 101–116. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1940-0002242-2. MR 0002242. ^ Colding, Tobias Holck; Minicozzi, William P. "Jesse Douglas (1897–1965): A Biographical Memoir" (PDF). Retrieved 14 January 2024. Themistocles M. Rassias, The Problem of Plateau – A tribute to Jesse Douglas and Tibor Rado (River Edge, NJ, 1992). Gray, Jeremy; Micallef, Mario (2008). "The Work Of Jesse Douglas On Minimal Surfaces". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series. 45 (2): 293–302. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-08-01192-0. This page was last edited on 15 May 2024, at 05:56 (UTC). additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.